PEOPLE are being given the chance to take to the skies in a hot air balloon and experience Stonehenge from a new perspective to mark 30 years since the monument became a Unesco World Heritage Site.

English Heritage (EH) has launched the competition which will see winners following in the footsteps of photography pioneers who took the first aerial images of the stones from a tethered balloon in 1906.

Thirty winners will be picked at random and given the opportunity to take a friend up in a tethered hot air balloon above Stonehenge in October.

Heather Sebire, English Heritage curator, said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Stonehenge from above and to appreciate the monument and the landscape from a whole new perspective.

"From this unique aerial vantage point you can see the dramatic difference that the removal of the old road and facilities has made.

"It is difficult to believe that only two and a half years ago the stone circle sat in entirely different and far less dignified surroundings.

"It is also possible from the air, to get a sense of how the removal of the A303 from the landscape would transform the World Heritage Site.”

A EH spokesman added: "Until 2013, Stonehenge and the experience of visiting it were severely compromised by nearby roads: the A303, and the even closer A344, which ran so near to the Neolithic monument it almost touched the Heel Stone.

"This precious ancient landscape and people’s appreciation of it was compromised by traffic and clutter. In 2013 major improvements were made, with the removal of the A344 road, the old buildings and car park.

"Three years on and the landscape has healed, grass has grown where the old road once ran, and the monument has been reunited with its ancient processional avenue and other monuments in the landscape.

"The government’s commitment to remove part of the existing A303 from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site has been welcomed as the next step in the transformation of the landscape, making access to the ancient stones and the World Heritage Site a more rewarding experience."

To enter the competition visit english-heritage.org.uk